Your perferred chat? We need more "Packed" chats

[Ceekur]

At Baph's urging, I decided to go ahead with the chat poll to see which chat members prefer to use. The issue of empty Packchats and members being spread over all of the chats, not sure which chat someone may be in hasn't really gone anywhere. Maybe a poll like this would help in settling this.

I don't see this as a poll to decide on which chat will be made "official" or anything. It will just list the various pros and cons of the four main chats that I've seen and hopefully flesh out the features of the various chats we have. Additional pros and cons can be edited in later. If it helps to tell the chats apart, I can edit in the owner/founder names as well.



"Old" PackChat - http://chrisroeder.net/thepack/chat/index.php3

Pros:
. Optional registration
. A useful manual logging feature - Messages are saved for a few days during which anyone can export them to a new window for easy copy and paste
. Easy to quickly start chatting with
. A color spectrum to change your message color
. Displays the number of users currently in the chat
. Timestamps down to the second

Cons:
. Message lag when there are several members in the chat
. Refreshes the window every 10 seconds to check for messages, producing an irritating "click" sound every time (if your computer is set on default Windows sounds, but the refresh shouldn't be necessary anyway)


"New" PackChat - http://www.thepack.network/packchat/

Pros:
. Unique sound effects, which are optional
. Also easy to quickly start chatting with
. Timestamps down to a minute

Cons:
. No possible registration
. No chat logging, messages scroll and clear off the chatbox after n lines


Chatzy PackChat - http://www.chatzy.com/112128966833

Pros:
. Optional registration
. An intuitive manual logging feature which offers several sorting options
. Easy enough for newcomers to use

Cons:
. Constant pinging to check for new messages
. If the chat has been inactive for more than 5 minutes, a window pops up asking you if you want to stay in the chat or leave
. No timestamps
. An adspace which you must pay $9 to remove (or just use an adblocker)


IRC PackChat - http://paradice.net/cgi-bin/cgiirc/irc.cgi?adv=1

Pros:
. Optional registration
. An automatic logging feature (certain IRC clients only)
. Only internet activity occurs when a new message appears
. Customizable timestamps (certain IRC clients only, browser has no stamps)
. "Entertaining dice bot" Fenrir with more than just a bag of tricks to keep yourself amused with

Cons:
. Some members seem to be having problem connecting at the moment
(Baph says: "We only have 5 allowed sessions from one IP address at this time, and are waiting on the admins to increase that limit.")
. Not self-explanatory for newcomers to setup when using the browser client
-- Using a downloadable client takes time to setup and, well, you have to download something
-- Downloadable clients require a little work and knowledge to setup before they can be used

[Anónimo Juan]

I voted for the new one since it's the only one I know, but it is always empty.

[Baphnedia]

Some notes on IRC to help everyone out...:

Just precluding some questions:
IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, is a client-server based system, and servers are for the most part independant. For example, if you connect to irc.freenode.net and join #paradice you'll find it to either be empty or full of people talking about some completely unrelated thing; it has nothing to do with the #paradice on chat.psionics.net.

To use IRC:
Find an IRC client; there are quite a few out there, for every platform.

Here're some of my favorites:
ChatZilla - an extension for Firefox and Mozilla (I think Mozilla comes with it, not sure though). With it installed, you'll be able to click on links like [url=irc://irc.paradice.net/pack]irc://irc.paradice.net/pack[/url] to get on IRC, and it can also be used independantly, without a link. It runs on anything that firefox runs on, as far as I know.

XChat - My personal favorite; a bit harder to learn to use if you're unfamilliar with IRC, and originally designed for *nix (Linux, Unix, and other misc. POSIX-compliant) OS's, it can be a little odd feeling to someone not used to such things, but it's very powerful, and runs on most mainstream OS's.
Also popular client, although not one I like, is mIRC, a nonfree windows-only program.

Useful commands found on most clients (Note: many clients let you do // if you actually want to start a line with / that's not a command):
/me <string> - Executes an emote with the supplied string. For example, entering "/me dances" would display * Ralith dances.
/join <channel> - Joins the specified channel. All channels begin with #. For example, entering "/join #pack" after connecting to irc.paradice.net would take me to our channel.
/nick <new nick> - Changes your nick.
/away <reason> - Sets your status as away, for reason <reason>. Most clients will display your nick greyed out or otherwise marked in the userlist while you're away.
/msg <nick> <message> - Sends a private message to <nick>. Most clients will open a new tab or window when a reply to one of these is received.
/notice <nick> <message> - Like /msg, except will show wherever <nick> is currently viewing, and does not open a new tab/window.
/whois <nick> - Displays information about the nick supplied. For example, entering "/whois Ralith" would display

* [Ralith] (~Ralith@soggy202.drizzle.com): Ralith Lupus
* [Ralith] #pack
* [Ralith] irc.paradice.net
* [Ralith] idle 00:00:17, signon: Thu Nov 03 06:59:07
* [Ralith] End of WHOIS list.

(note that formatting may vary on other clients)

How to register (Registration will prevent others from impersonating you):
Once you've connected, enter "/nickserv register <pass> <email>". The email MUST be valid, as it will send a one-time-use command to it that you'll have to enter to complete registration. Once you've registered, reconnect and enter "/pass <pass>" within one minute to log in. If you don't enter it within the time limit, the server will force your name to change to something like "Guest123". Most clients can be configured to automatically enter that after connecting.

If you say someone's full nick, chances are their client will flash to get their attention. Don't abuse this.

[edit: added /away]
[edit2: added note about beeping]
[edit3: added /msg and /notice]
[edit4: minor reformatting]

[edit5: changed the old IRC addresses to the new IRC addresses]

[Set]

I'm never in the Pack chat, but when I did pop in for a look at least one of them didn't work for me. (I forget which.) IRC is what's most familiar to me. I actually know how to use that. I don't suppose it matters, though, since I don't bother with chat rooms anymore.

[MoonKit]

Maybe nobody is in them because we have no idea which one to go to.


Do we have an OFFICIAL pack chat?

[Kaebora]

The current "official" chat has had identity theft issues, and some people have had Java errors with the latest Windows updates (though by now this has mostly been fixed). Aside from the fact that it is easy to access... that link can easilly be changed to one of the other chatrooms.

[Shadow Wulf]

I dont chat so anyone will do as long as its simple.